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Sunday: March 13, 2005

An Irish pub near Lincoln Center advertises Eggs Benedict, Florentine, and another kind I’ve already forgotten for $10.95, “eggs, any style” for $9.95. I wonder how many diners brunchers try to save a dollar by arguing that “any style” obviously includes Benedict and Florentine and the other kind. Does the pub give the discount to anyone clever (and cheap) enough to ask for it — it’s only a dollar difference — or risk a lawsuit by refusing? I’m no lawyer, but it looks like a hard case to defend.

1 Comment

Naw, I doubt the judge would accept that argument.

“Any style” obviously refers to any style of cooking, not “any sort of other things you want put on your eggs”; otherwise, just as you get eggs benedict by adding hollandaise, they could ask for “eggs my style”, which includes half a pound of bacon, and a crisp $20 bill on top.

So, “any style” can, in normal English usage and in any resonable restaurant context, only refer to the method of cooking, rather than the addition of expensive sauces or toppings.

See? Even if anybody was crazy enough to sue over that, they’d never win. (What would the grounds be? False advertising? Never stand up to the “any sensible person knows damn well it only refers to methods of cooking, especially since the other versions are explicitly listed, and it’s not our fault the plaintiff is a damned fool wasting this court’s time” argument.